Robot Empire: Geek A.I. EP Review

Published: May 24, 2012

By: Jordan Calvano

In today’s current bass culture, it goes without saying that a lot of producers are all about bringing the heavy and grimy sounds to their fans. While this can often be incredibly entertaining, it seems a good portion of them are sacrificing melody and emotion to create these filthy soundscapes.

That is where Robot Empire comes in. The venomous young producer out of New York City is a beast when it comes to crafting relentless tunes that will quickly tear apart any club, while still meticulously entwining melody driven hooks within all his songs. His bass heavy tracks create an abstract war of colliding sounds that are all fighting for victory behind a soundtrack of apocalyptic instrumentations and rampant drum samples, which will quickly make an impact on any listener from the first time they tune in. This can be heard on his debut release, Use of Weapons, off Simplify Recordings, which includes tenacious cuts like “Dope Spot” and “Hurt.”

On his second offering brought to us by Simplify, Geek A.I, we witness Robot Empire exceeding expectations with a dubbed out release full of memorable sounds that are sure to get him some attention in his respective scene.

Opening up the EP is “Sugarbot,” which is a synth smacking tune full of gargantuan snare hits and clock stopping vocal samples that will quickly have any listener hooked from the second this song drops. This track is a huge step forward for Robot Empire, who is improving at an incredible rate while developing a remarkable set of soundscapes that strike like lighting every time they are released.

“Machines” is a rambunctious track that slowly builds up while adding contagious layers to itself as the song progresses, and than at once releases its full potential in a fireball of fury. This song truly embodies some of the things Robot Empire does best; unloading effervescent dub whomps and creating tantalizing synth bursts.

“Hurt pt II” is an emotive song that follows up the original version off Use of Weapons, but presents it in a whole new way. This version features Erik Anderson emphatically belting out original vocals throughout, while still weaving lyrics from Aaliyah’s classic song “We Need A Resolution” in between to create an immersive and memorable cut.

Robot Empire steps up in a huge way on this EP with an energetic set of songs that not only improves off his last release, but also quickly proves that he is here to stay.